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French Onion Rice is like the side dish version of the soup, with sweet, jammy caramelized onions, a fabulous white wine infused beef broth, and fluffy rice finished with a generous sprinkle of gruyere cheese. It’s a dream!
Psst—I’m going to tell you a little secret. Recipe developers have been lying to you about how to caramelize onions.
I’m not talking about food bloggers. I’m talking magazines. Big websites. They tell you to cook the onions over medium-high heat for 8 minutes and call them caramelized. Friends, those are sautéed onions.
So this French onion rice? It’s the real deal. It takes some time. We’re gonna caramelize the onions for real for real, until they’re deeply browned and jammy. It’s worth it—and oh, it’s SO much better than starting your French onion rice with canned soup. Quelle horreur!
Ingredient Highlights
- Butter – You can use salted or unsalted. If you use salted butter, be conservative with any additional salt you add to the recipe; you’ll want to season to taste.
- Onions – White, red, or yellow, they’ll all work here. One variety I don’t recommend is sweet onions, which have a higher moisture content so they don’t brown as well and they’re prone to going mushy on you.
- Dry white wine – I’m a non-drinker, so I buy the $2 cooking wine in the plastic bottle. Super fancy. Pinkies out.
- Gruyere cheese – Freshly grated will give you the meltiest, gooey-est results, but Trader Joe’s does sell it shredded if you want a little shortcut.
Pro tips/recipe notes
- Sometimes when you’re caramelizing onions, they start to dry out and get papery instead of getting jammy. This may not be an official chef’s trick, but it works in my kitchen: when this happens, I start adding water to the pan every few minutes. I’ll add a tablespoon or two of water, stir it in, then when it cooks off, add more.
- Rather than focusing on the time for cooking the rice, just wait for the liquid to be absorbed. It could be at 17 minutes; it could be at 20 minutes. The important thing is that the liquid cooks off because no one likes soggy rice and it will make your family sad.
- Refrigerate leftovers in an air-tight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen rice in the fridge before reheating.
Prevent your screen from going dark
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In a large frying pan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-low heat.
3 tbsp butter
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Add the onions, olive oil, and kosher salt. Stir occasionally until browned (30-45 minutes). Some of the onions might stick a bit, but keep gently stirring to dislodge them.
4 cups white, red, or yellow onions, 1/4 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp olive oil
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Add the garlic and white wine and cook for ~3 more minutes.
2 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp dry white wine
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Using a slotted spoon, remove all but 1/3 cup of caramelized onions from the pot and place them in a bowl. Set aside.
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Add the rice to the butter mixture left in the pot and stir for a few minutes to toast it.
1 1/4 cup long-grain white rice
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Add the beef broth to the rice, increase the temp to medium-high, and bring it to a boil for 1 minute, stirring the whole time.
2 cups beef broth
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Reduce the burner temperature to low and allow the rice to cook covered for 17 minutes. Quickly lift the lid and check at minute 10.
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After 17 minutes are up, check to see if the liquid has been absorbed, and cook for another 2-5 minutes if needed.
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Remove the pot from the stove and let it sit covered for 3 minutes.
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Fluff the rice with a fork and stir in the rest of the caramelized onions.
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{Optional} Top with gruyere and fresh thyme leaves.
1 cup gruyere cheese, 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- If using a frying pan, make sure it is deep enough to accommodate the rice, and has a lid.
Serving: 1cupCalories: 394kcalCarbohydrates: 31gProtein: 19gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 13gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 420mgPotassium: 244mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 639IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 401mgIron: 3mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
